President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to broker a peace deal in Ukraine, but as he prepares to take office, peace seems as elusive as ever

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he’s willing to hand over the soldiers to North Korea, if Kim Jong Un arranges for an exchange with Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia.

Separately, Ukraine revealed more details about the first two North Korean soldiers it has captured alive and said it was willing to exchange them for Ukrainians held in Russia.

South Korean intelligence has reported that at least 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed and another 2,700 wounded in the war against Ukraine. Source: South Korean news agency Yonhap Details: The National Intelligence Service (NIS) of South Korea shared this information with lawmakers during a closed session of the parliamentary intelligence committee,

Ukraine’s president released a video of the two soldiers being interrogated, revealing they knew little about the war they were sent to fight in.

Ukraine has found “irrefutable evidence” of North Korea’s involvement in Russia’s war against his country, president Volodymyr Zelensky said this week as he announced the capture of two North Korean soldiers.

Russia signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran on Friday that follows similar pacts with China and North Korea. All three countries are adversaries of the United States, and Russia has used its ties with them to help blunt the impact of Western sanctions and boost its war effort in Ukraine.

North Korea warned Friday that it would exercise its right to self-defense "more intensively" as it condemned recent joint air drills among South Korea, the United States and Japan.

There is mounting evidence from the battlefield, intelligence reports and testimonies of defectors that some North Korean soldiers are resorting to extreme measures as they support Russia's three-year war with Ukraine.

The soldiers have been ordered to kill themselves rather than be taken prisoner, said a South Korean lawmaker. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Ukrainian intelligence (SBU) released a video showing the two men in hospital bunks, one with bandaged hands and the other with a bandaged jaw.